Local runners' harrowing tales at Boston Marathon

Holly Johnson said she ran a fast marathon and had just cleared the finish line area about 15 minutes before the explosion that rocked the finish of the Boston Marathon.

BY JEREMY WALLACE KATY BERGEN LEE WILLIAMS

Sarasota runner Holly Johnson was never more grateful for her training than on Monday.

Johnson, 52, ran a fast Boston Marathon and had just cleared the finish line area about 15 minutes before the explosions of at least two bombs that killed two and injured scores of others.

She was on a bus being escorted away from the finish line with other runners when she heard the explosions. When the bus dropped her off, Johnson knew she had to get out of the area.

“I just told myself to be alert and do what you need to do to get out of the city,” said Johnson, who completed her fourth Boston Marathon.

Nearly two dozen runners from Southwest Florida were participating in the world-famous marathon. There were no reports on injuries among the contingent from Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties.

When Johnson was able to turn on her cell phone, she found almost a dozen text and phone messages from family and friends checking to make sure she was okay. As emotionally and physically draining as a marathon can be, Johnson said she is just grateful something kicked in that made her focus on getting out.

“In times of stress, I get almost robotic about doing what I need to do,” Johnson said.

‘How could anyone do this?

Sarasota's Fernanda Scalera, 43, had finished the marathon and was in the family meeting area — grouped by the first letter of the runner's last name — waiting on her husband and children.

“We all started walking away and we were a couple blocks from the finish when police started running like crazy — absolute mayhem,” said Scalera, clearly shaken by the havoc in Boston. “People were crying, on their phones, trying to ask what was going on.”

The results of the explosions drifted over the city for blocks.

“We started smelling gunpowder — the explosive smell. People were saying to get far away from the finish line, but Boston is tricky. Streets cross each other,” Scalera said. “I had my kids with me, ages 9, 11 and 13. My kids were scared. We had to walk about seven miles to get back to the hotel.”

Scalera did not find out what had happened until she was able to get to a television.

“It's hard to understand how anyone could do this,” she said. “It's such a beautiful city.”

Chaos ensues

Adam Bright, a 47-year-old orthopedic surgeon from Sarasota, also had finished the race and was looking for food in the nearby Copley Center when he heard explosions a half-mile away.

The center was evacuated, and Bright found himself on the street among crowds of people going in all directions. People were not panicked but dazed and what seemed like dozens of ambulances rushed by.

Police officers were trying to convince crowds to move away from the explosion.

“There was a lot of people on cell phones and walking in every direction,” Bright said. “I don't know if they were confused runners who were trying to meet their families or they didn't know what direction to go.”

Calls were impossible, Bright said, who was able to text his wife that he was okay.

“It's destructive for the running spirit,” Bright said. “Everyone's out there for their health. Everyone's image of what should have been the best race of their life is ruined.”

Heightened security

Sarasota's Jodi Rich, 33, qualified for the marathon and registered for the race, but did not attend. Her husband had gotten tickets to the Masters and convinced her to watch golf instead.

But Rich spent most of Monday afternoon on the phone to her friends who ran the race, including Fineman, the 38-year-old Sarasotan.

“Lauren finished three minutes before the explosion,” Rich said.

Another Sarasota runner, Lissa Murphy, 39, finished in the top third of the runners and was about four blocks away when she heard the explosion.

“I didn't think much of it,” Murphy said. “I had just finished a marathon and I was in so much pain — it was a very loud boom. My daughter saw smoke going up toward the sky. We just kept walking to the hotel. We're just in shock. I have a sickening feeling in my stomach.”

The whole thing was eerie, said Jackie Dorociak, a Sarasota resident and freshman dental student at the University of Florida, who ran her first Boston Marathon in 3 hours and 25 minutes.

Dorociak was in the family meeting center up the street when the explosions occurred, but minutes before her mother and sister had been standing in the exact spot the bombs went off.

“I felt a little reverberation and a loud boom,” Dorociak, 22, said. “We didn't really know what it was. It wasn't until we were in the cab that we saw ambulances rushing past and looked on our phones.”

She and her family jumped in a cab and went straight to the airport, where they were met with armed police guards, bomb dogs and heightened security.

“There is so much hype around the Boston Marathon,” Dorociak said. “It's such a shame that this was overshadowed by this horribleness.”

A race ruined

North Port's Bethany Heslam also outran the twin explosions and was in the family meeting area when she she heard the booms.

Heslam, 48, a former cross-country coach at Port Charlotte High School, finished the marathon in 3 hours and 35 minutes. She was able to speak to her husband, Jim Chappo, soon after the race to let him know she was OK.

Sarasota's Lissa Murphy, 39, had just finished the race when the explosions occurred, posting this on her Facebook page: “We are ok. I had finished and we were 4 blocks away when we heard the explosion. I'm sick. I feel so badly for those hurt and even those whose marathon was interrupted by yet another (expletive) psycho.”

Sarasota's Zvonko Smlatic, and his wife, Debra Gingerich, were locked down in the 463 Beacon Street Guest House after they walked back to their hotel, about 3/4 mile away from the finish line. Smlatic finished almost two hours before the explosion.

“We actually heard the explosion,” Gingerich said. “I didn't think much of it. You don't imagine that it was a bomb. I didn't think of it being related to the race at all until a coworker of Zvonko's called to see if he was okay.”

Smlatic, a Yugoslavian immigrant who came to the U.S. 14 years ago, was struggling to come to terms with the event.

“Today is something special for everybody. It's like an international festival and one of the best marathons in the world,” Smlatic said. “You dream to come here and cross the finish line.”

Staff writer Thomas Becnel contributed to this report.

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